


Teacher of the Year (feat. Valerie Grey

by Guardian_Rex



Series: Featuring Valerie Grey [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Danny is not an idiot, F/M, Jack is not an idiot, Mild Language, Other, What if Valerie had a more lasting impression than just her episodes?, coffee and Danny definitely mix, how do you tag things?, no one is straight, will add more tags as needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-01 02:19:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15132941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rex/pseuds/Guardian_Rex
Summary: Technus is back, Danny's facing the consequences of his poor grades, Tucker looks up Technus' history while playing DOOMED, and Valerie doesn't make things all that much easier for Danny.





	1. Frustrating Beginnings

Be it life or death, some part of the universe hated Danny and used his suffering as its form of entertainment.  “First it’s Sam in DOOMED ™ and now it’s Technus on the loose. How the heck did my helmet hit the release button?”  Danny ducked a stray remote control and blasted it into a bunch of itty bitty pieces. “Watch it! And get back here so I can capture you!  I have a test in the morning!”

Cackling like the mad scientist he was, Technus threw a bolt of green lightning at Danny, who dodged out of its way and fired another beam from his eyes.  Technus made a shield in the form of a circuit board once more and soon vanished from sight. Danny growled and focused his ectoplasmic energy on his eyes.  A lense of green covered the world and he saw Technus, already several meters further away and reaching out with tendrils of power to all the electronics present.  Danny took out his Fenton Phones and called Tucker and Sam, sucking on his teeth. “Guys, Technus got out and is flying toward the park. I’m trying to get a good shot in on him,” Danny punctuated that with an ectoblast to Technus’ hide, only managing to singe his coat.  “Unfortunately, he’s slippery and this swarm of tech that he’s got following him is like an asteroid field that’s against me.”

“ _We’re on our ways, Danny,_ ” Sam called over the earpiece.  “ _I just need like, five minutes._ ”

“ _Same here, Danny.  I’ve got the code for breaking into Technus’ usual programming ready on my PDA._ ”  Tucker sounded like he was struggling with something before his line went quiet.

“I’ll make sure that he’s in one spot if I can.  I’ve got a Thermos on me and it’s still on me instead of him for some reason.”  Danny would have to look into that later when he had time. For now, Technus was getting away.  Danny shifted further away from the real world, sliding against that barrier of static that separated the Ghost Zone from the Earth and sped through that asteroid field of electronics.  Technus flew around undeveloped and empty space, saturated in a light that was closer to teal than to green, and was gathering up energy in his hands. Danny charged his own blast and grinned.  “C’mon old man, you can’t be this easy to beat in just round two.”

Technus snapped his hand back at Danny, and the teen met the plasma beam with his own.  “How _dare_ you?  I am not _old_ , you whippersnapper! I am hip and funky fresh!  The Master of Technology knows only relevant and cool things in this modern era!”  Technus pulled his asteroid field of stolen items into the space they were occupying and Danny was forced to make holes in his body to avoid a collision.  An idea struck and Danny turned into a cloud of green mist, though he remained in a general person like shape. Against an electricity-wielding enemy, it was a bad idea.

Technus shocked Danny back into the real world, where the teen ejected out of the ground like a rocket and hit a tree.  The cloud of stolen electronics raced around like a storm of green metal, and Tucker and Sam were soon running toward the scene with blaster and PDA in hand.  Technus’ battle body constructed itself around the silhouette of the mad scientist ghost, and Sam started firing along with Danny. “Note to self, don’t turn into a cloud when your enemy can set you on fire easier that way.  You guys lose anything in this?” Danny would hate to be blowing up anything of theirs, after all.

“Nope,” Tucker chirped.  “I left everything else but my scooter at home and the scooter is at the edge of the park.”

“Same here,” Sam confirmed.  “I only brought this ecto pistol you gave me, and since I charmed it, it’s not going anywhere.”  Danny gave Sam a look with his Ecto Vision and nearly lost his eyebrows in his hairline. “What?”

“You have purple light coming out of you like I have green,” he said casually, building up an even bigger ball of ectoplasma.  “Wait for him to finish, then Tuck will shut him down, we blow him up, and I catch him in the Thermos. Did you enchant those too?”  Danny grinned over at Sam who shrugged.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”  Sam ceased fire and jerked a finger over at Tucker.  "I know I charmed the PDA Tuck has in his hand. I know he needs it for dealing with this doofus and Skulker."

"I knew something was different about Shiela..." Tucker tapped away at the screen, loading the program he had used last time to fuck over Technus' OS.  "I'm totally ready to take Technus down, but first I have to say that I'm going to take a lot more satisfaction in it now that he looks like Sam's avatar."  Technus had constructed himself an avatar much like Chaos, Sam's character in their video game. It was also about thirty feet tall and had the tech ghost's face on it instead of Sam's purple icon face, and sparks flew from around the purple circuitry.  "What can't ghosts do to Earthly matter?"

"That's an excellent question for another day."  Danny chuckled and condensed his ectoblast into a ball the size of Tucker's head.  "You ready with that stun, Friar Tuck?"

"On it, Ghost boy."  While Danny and Sam charged forward, attacking Technus' giant body in the air and on a scooter, Tucker tapped away furiously to break through Technus' firewalls.  With each one, he left a nasty virus behind that would quickly erode the coding that Technus was using until he got to the root of the problem. "Got it!" Letting loose his coup de gras, Tucker watched with glee as Technus' arms began spasming wildly, hitting the ghost's own body as well as going wide from Danny.

Sam focused her aim on the leg joints and Danny let loose a blast bigger than himself, knocking Technus onto his back.  The ghost cried out in pain and quickly regained control of his body, though only enough to shoot an ectoblast at Sam. Danny got in front of the goth and raised a shield that reflected the plasma ball right back at the ghost, removing an arm.  "NO! I, Technus, am tired of losing to you!"

"Well then you, Technus, need to up your video game skills if you wanna beat us."  Danny chuckled, green fire blazing in his hands and aimed at Technus' legs. Danny let loose the streams of plasma and grinned when the outer shell cracked and warped under the force and heat.  "A little makeover doesn't do much when you're fighting the one who you're ripping off."

"I bet you only saw my avatar for like, what, three seconds?"  Sam scoffed, firing a shot in Technus' face. "What kind of scientist tests something out without even the basic observation of how it works?"

"Especially field testing, where everything could go wrong," Tucker agreed, walking up behind the two.  "That's like, science 101, never test something for the first time when you _need_ it to work.  And look at that, you failed utterly."

Technus growled and fired a beam from his eyes, yelping when Danny deflected it back into his face.  "Damn you! I Technus must learn more before I can conquer this world!" Technus used his remaining limb to press a large red button that appeared on his chest.  Danny wrapped Tucker and Sam up in a bubble when he realized what happened and sucked on his teeth when the explosion ended.

"Darnit, we shoulda caught him instead of insulting him." Danny kicked the ground and dropped his shield.  He turned to Sam and raised a brow. "So, back to you glowing. It's weird, like the same glow I've got in ghost mode, except it's purple."  He squinted and wiggled his hand. "Violet. Whatever, it's a shade of purple. That's really cool, I think it has to do with your witchcraft and possibly the charged ectoplasm floating around town and during our fights."

"That makes sorta sense,” Sam said.  “I wonder if the ectoplasm might strengthen my charms.”  A grin crept over her face and Danny worried about what plans Sam might have.

“What about me?”  Tuck tapped Danny’s shoulder while sifting through the wreckage of the avatar.  “Do I glow any special color?” If Danny looked close enough he could see bright yellow sparks lining Tucker’s body, steadily obscuring him from view.

“Yellow, like sunny yellow,” Danny said, nodding to himself, and decided to grab a colored pencil to detail one of his sketches of Tucker.  “It’s buzzing a little like electricity. Fitting.” Danny wrapped an arm around both friends, floating up into the air. “Home? Sleepover?  It's like 3 AM.”

“I can’t leave my scooter here Danny,” Tucker said.  “I can’t afford for that to happen. My parents might ground me for life.”  Tucker pointed to his scooter and Danny dropped him off. “Meet up at school with coffee?”

“You know I’ll have coffee Tucker, how else would I deal with classes?”  Sam rolled her eyes and elbowed Danny, pointing to where her own scooter was a few yards away.  “Make sure to actually sleep Ghost Boy, we have a test tomorrow.”

“Today,” Danny said, earning another elbow to his ribs, and chuckled.  “No worries Sam, I’ll get plenty of sleep!”

 

Not five minutes away from home did Danny sense another ghost in need of dealing with.  “Darnit. Alright, this one then bed.”

 

When Danny managed to wake himself up again in the midst of class, papers were being collected and Lancer was staring at him.  He wasn’t glaring per say, but worse. _I think he looks disappointed. Crud._  Lance pulled out his red pen and Danny glared at his empty test paper.   _I thought I had filled in at least three of these._

As Lancer collected the tests, Danny felt his eyes burn with anger and the lights flickered.  Dash, directly behind him, hissed something about his phone dying and many others surrounding Danny made similar comments after a quick check.  Danny pushed the whispers to the back of his head where they belonged and focused on not breaking his desk in his grip. _I’m gonna cram Technus into a thermos and chuck it into the ocean when I find him._


	2. Passing on Bad Grades

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not all ghosts are bad, not all good ghosts are in the GZ. Also, Vlad swears in sweets and Lancer in books so I'm gonna have Danny swear in astrology stuff.

Danny Tucker and Sam were moving across their usual patrol route, Sam and Tucker’s scooters now both enchanted by Sam to resist ghostly influence.  “Any signs of Technus guys? I have a few points to make to him about the grade he ruined.” When he got his hands on Technus he was going to test out just how concentrated a blast he could manage.

_ “Danny, have you ever considered coffee? _ ”  Tucker’s voice brought Danny out of his angry thoughts of aggression and Danny phased through a building.

“Uh, not really no.  Though I guess that’d help a bit with all the nightly rounds I do,” Danny said with a shrug, rising up higher in the air.  “What kind do you recommend?”

“ _ I was actually thinking- _ ”

“ _ Oh gods, that’s a bad sign. _ ”

“ _ Hush Sam.  I was thinking, you’re pretty ok at chemistry right? _ ”  Danny scoffed.

“I learned from my mom, of course I’m good at chemistry.  What of it?”

“ _ For all nighters before school, you could like distill the beans into an even greater version of coffee right?  Get more caffeine for your buck? _ ”

“ _ Did you just suggest that Danny of all people play scientist with his coffee? _ ”  Danny pouted as he pulled toward that tug of cold in his chest.  “ _ That is a horrible idea. _ ”

“I am a scientist, thank you very much, I can experiment with caffeine all I want,” Danny whispered, turning invisible and intangible to look better.  “I think I have a lead on something.” Looking around, the street appeared to be largely abandoned - likely by people afraid of whatever was doing all the damage around town.

Floating into the building, Danny expected to see some frothing monster waiting to eat people, not a little girl flitting from furniture piece to furniture piece in search of something.  She had blue skin, dark hair that spilled all over her shoulders and her aura was pulsating a bit frantically. “Hello?” Wide green eyes turned to meet Danny’s before the girl jumped over a couch to hide.  Better than attacking him. “Hi, I’m Danny. What’s your name?” Danny smiled, waving at the girl when she poked her head around the couch.

She stared at him for a long moment, neither of them blinking, before finally, she whispered, “Gamilla.”  Gamilla floated out from behind her couch and sat down on it with a frown. “I can’t find Mr. Kulan! I know I put him somewhere around here…”  Tears, glistening a lime color that was somehow even more toxic and bright than Ectoplasm’s usual shade, swelled up in her eyes and Danny flew over to pat her on the shoulder.

“Hey it’s ok Gamilla, how about I help you look?  We can find Mr. Kulan and go from there. Two people searching is faster than one, right?”  Cujo vanished after he found his squeaky toy and Danny was 80% sure he had simply passed on so maybe he could help Gamilla do the same.  “What’s he look like?” Gamilla beamed up at Danny and he had a feeling he did the right thing.

 

Half an hour later, Danny watched as Gamilla and her strange bear dragon plushie that was up in the attic behind a heavy chest buzzed at the edges like static.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and Danny hugged her back. “Thank you so so much, Danny! I was looking for him forever!”

“I’m glad I could help Gamilla,” Danny said with a smile.  She flickered, ectoplasm leaking when she did.

“I think I have to go now Danny,” Gamilla said.  “Now that I have Mr. Kulan though I won’t be lonely!”  Another glitch effect and Danny felt something ache in his chest.  He barely got to know the kid. “When you get there we can play lots of games together, right?”

“Sure Gamilla, I’ll teach you all the games me and my sister came up with.”  Danny felt the girl go fuzzy at the edges, like a cloud barely held together and tightened the hug a bit.  “Goodbye Gamilla.”

“Goodbye, Danny!”  And then with one final glitch, Gamilla was gone in a puff of ectoplasmic smoke.  Danny could feel the energy leaving the ectoplasm too, fading away until it was all cold as ice and reaching for any warmth it could get. Danny sat there for a bit, staring at where Gamilla had been before he stood up and floated toward the roof.

“Guys?”

“ _ Yeah, we were listening, _ ” Sam said over the whine of an ectopistol charging on her end.  “ _ She sounded like a real sweet kid.  Gotta agree on the purple for favorite color. _ _ Can I get a bit of help over here though?  I’ve spotted one of those ectopi and I don’t know if there are others. _ ”

Danny and Tucker both confirmed that they were on the way after Sam gave her location, and Danny pushed his emotions out of the way for a bit.  When he got there, Danny could see three ectopi hovering around Sam. Each one was trying to slam its tentacles at her, but Sam blasted them away, and those she missed bounced off of a shimmer of purple.  “You made a shield charm?”

“Can’t get too careful now can I?”  Sam shot one of the ectopi in the eye and Danny shot the other two into the ground.  Two sank into the ground, but one snatched Danny around the middle before he could go after them.  “See, it lets me avoid being in a gross looking situation too.”

“Wow, Sam, just wow,” Tucker said with a shot to Danny’s ectopus.  “And here I thought I was the only one looking at that kinda stuff in the group.  A woman of taste, I see.” Another shot and the ectopus loosened its grip.

Danny turned into a cloud, moving out of its grip, before raining down five ectoblasts at once at the thing before he became solid once more.  It screeched and Danny twisted back into his usual form, sucking up the ectopus in his thermos. He twisted his head around and fired a shot at one that was coming behind him, pushing it into Tucker and Sam’s line of fire.  That was pulled into the thermos as well. “Can I  _ not _ hear about your teratophilia like ever, Tucker?  With what we fight, it’s mildly disturbing at best.”

“Danny I need you to go into my head,” Sam said while thermosing the last ectopus behind Tucker.  “And find my memory of this conversation and delete it. Can you do that for me?”

“Good question, will test on Dash and get back to you on that,” Danny said, pulling a notepad out of his pocket and writing that down.  “I think that’s good for tonight guys. Bed?”

“If I can sleep now,” Sam said with a shudder.

“Says the girl with the cru- ow, ow, shutting up.”  Tucker rubbed his arm and hissed in pain. Danny chuckled and took off toward his house, confident that he’d be fine.

* * *

 

Danny’s head snapped up and he glared at the paper in front of him marked with a big dumb F.  It defied him and all the good grades he’d gotten before he got his ghost powers and he hated it, might’ve been singing the F mark a bit with his powersohshit _ stop _ .  No one saw that, thankfully.  Still, the paper deserved it for getting between him and NASA, though Danny had flown to space a couple times already to help Tucker hack satellites so did he  _ need _ NASA when he could just fly in and go through their information?  Danny could probably possess a few people and sample their memories to get the passwords he wanted and then copy the data and take it home so that he could parse through it and build on from- “Do you know what I see when I look at you?”

“A sleep-deprived teenager with potential narcolepsy doing his best to regain the great grades he had in middle school so he can get to space and discover proof of aliens to rub into the face of his skeptical friends?”  Danny needed a manual for his brain so that he could find the speech center and turn it off. Technically he’d been listening to what Lancer was saying - a little bit, technically, somewhat - but the man was so boring and droned on and on through speeches.

“Do you know what I’m gonna do Danny?”

“Pass me so you look better like all the teachers do with the jocks who you all know are bullying smarter kids into doing their homework, explaining why their test grades are horrible but they all get Bs on their homework?”   _ Why am I like this and how do I make it stop? _

Lancer raised a brow at Danny, face turning a shade of red.  “No, however, I am going to give you the opportunity to do better.  I’m making you retake the test.”

“How important is this test that I’m getting to retake it?”  Danny really wished he could stop talking and was even willing to find Desiree so that he could stop.  “This is a lot more effort than you’ve given me before, which I am incredibly grateful for.”

“One quarter of your final grade, Danny,” Lancer said as though his voice were turning to stone.  “Three days to study for the makeup. Get it?”

“Got it, sir.”

* * *

 

Valerie was a smart girl, had some of the highest grades in her classes with only Star’s help needed in math sometimes.  When she dedicated time to learning anything, Valerie absorbed information like a sponge - as gross as that simile was. Valerie had, since the Ember incident, kept an eye on all things Ember related while researching ghosts.  Every book in the library related to them had been checked out, read through, taken notes on, and then shuffled out for the next. She’d even covered the Fenton’s published research since they were the top experts. Everything pointed to all ghosts having an obsession, which meant that the Kid had one too.  Ember looked more and more solid with each show that she had, and each song she wrote seemed a bit more cheerful than  _ Remember _ .  “So what’s his obsession since he has to have one?  Fought Ember, but let her go to go on tour, restrained that dog till it supposedly found its chew toy, and doesn’t stop to apologize after his confrontations with other ghosts when he’s clearly done collateral damage.  Could be helping people, or it could be that he’s obsessed with fighting on earth.”

The ghost detection radar thing on Valerie’s board control water beeped six times and Valerie groaned.  “Two of them, which means that Kid is one of them.” Valerie dogeared her place in her textbook and grabbed her bag full of equipment.  In moments she was out the window and flying toward the ghosts. Like she had thought, the kid was there, shooting blasts at some ghost flying faster than the kid himself with red eyes and several claws.  Valerie hefted her rifle and took aim, waiting. “It may be prepared to dodge him, but it’s not ready for me.” The ghost kept whizzing around, dodging shots that left potholes in the street and sidewalks below, and Valerie grit her teeth.

“Aha!”  She pulled the trigger as the ghost slowed down to taunt the kid, striking it with a bolt of pink plasma right in the chest.  That was all the time the kid needed apparently as he rained down a shower of green blasts that struck the creature each time before sucking it up into some metal tube with a cap.

Val flew over and shouted, “Hey kid, what’s your name?  You know mine, and I can’t just keep calling you ‘The Kid’.”

He snorted and flashed Val a smile, looking all the world like he was just a regular teenager who heard a funny joke.  Had the Fentons ever actually  _ seen _ a ghost?  “True, that’s a nickname for Billys, not Dannys.  Name’s Danny Phantom by the way, nice not to get shot at for once.  Though I’m not sure if our relationship is missing something without it.”  Val rolled her eyes and pulled the trigger, an ectobolt flying through a  _ hole in Danny’s chest _ that appeared in response.  “I was joking.”

“Couldn’t tell,” Val said and shrugged.  Asking him directly worked for his name, so what else could Val get out of him.  “So why are you here? Is the Earth a better place to fight in or do you not remember why?”  Based on Danny’s laughter it wasn’t going to get her much. 

“Oh my stars Valerie!”   _ Interesting _ .  “You can’t just ask a ghost what their obsession is like that!  Oh man, that’s so rude.” He was still shaking with giggles, and Valerie sighed because of course that was rude, she was basically asking him what his deepest reason for existing was.   _ I’ll need to ask Kwan how he’d get the info. _  “Other ghosts might rant to you about it or attack you for reminding them that they died.  Seriously, be careful.” Danny was now circling her on his back, as though wading in a pool.  Valerie sat down on her board, watching him carefully. “I wonder if you can figure it out. Gonna exorcise me?”

“As in get rid of you so we both can have some peace?”  Valerie grumbled. “Maybe I will do that Danny.” Danny’s face went blank for a moment before he rolled his eyes and dispersed into green mist.  “Damn.”

* * *

 

Danny landed in the bathroom of the Internet Cafe Sam and Tuck were at, moving to sit between them with a groan.  “Why do ghosts attack so much? V helped me out then like, threatened to exorcise me. I need mindless zombie killing.”  Danny logged in and headed to Doomed™ before Tucker could finish up his own round of monster slaying the post-apocalyptic game-scape.  “Tuck, you and I are gonna take Sam down today.”

“Good luck with that boys,” Sam drawled, a news article on eco-friendly technology and a word document opened up on her screen.  “What’s this about V?”

“I was chasing down a ghost that had mugged someone, trying to shoot them down, but they were too fast for me.  Then V shot them, stunned em long enough for me, and I thermosed em.” Select level, get weapon, start firing at zombies in the mall.  “Then she decided to just, ya know, talk. Which is weird, isn’t it? Like, she asked for my name and then why I’m here and when I asked her if she was gonna like exorcise me as a joke, she was like ‘yeah, I guess, for the both of us.’”

Rare was it when Danny had Sam and Tucker’s full undivided attention, but now was one of those times.  Probably because his fingers were glowing almost enough to be noticed under the lights above. Sam was the first to interrupt his zombie eviscerations.  “You said you talked with her after the Ember thing, right?”

“Two weeks to think it over while shooting at you and listening to you scream about how it felt probably helped,” Tucker said.  “Though that’s pretty quick to get over something like that. She used to sick Dash and Kwan on us for the smallest thing.”

“Maybe she’s humbled by the shift in her life and is examining the value of her life along with considering the concepts of life and death since the dead fly around with near single-minded goals equal to each other no matter their money in life?”  Danny cleared out the last zombie on the map and found a key. He took it to a safe he could never get unlocked before. “Sweet I found an extra life in the MegaMart.”

“Hope it’s any good against Lancer or V,” Sam said, “Cause it won’t help against me.”

“Please Sam, can you imagine Lancer even being here, let alone seeing me?”  Danny snorted as he went through his inventory. “Lancer has a laptop, so the only reason he’d be here is like.  Playing truant officer or something - though it’s after school so he can’t even technically be doing that.”

“I feel a change of venue can inspire one’s writing, Danny,” a familiar voice that had little to no business being here said behind him.  “You, however, don’t appear inspired to do your English studying at all.”

“Perhaps,” Sam said in her I Know Better Than You voice, “Danny’s resting his brain after all the intense review he’s done already with recreation.  You know how unhealthy and unproductive it is to cram continuously, after all, being the vice principal.” Sam was amazing and would be hugged after this.

“You saw my paper, Mr. Lancer,” Tucker added to further save Danny, “& I’m helping Danny with his review and his breaks.  I’ll make sure he gets the rest he needs to be awake for the test.” A beat. “Why an internet café for your poem?”

As he had no power outside of school, Lancer left.  Then Danny grabbed his friends into tight hugs and thanked them repeatedly.  “Not a problem Danny,” Sam said with a laugh. 

“What’re friends for right?”  Tucker leaned into the hug a bit before slipping back into his research.  “So, Technus. Remember how Cujo and Gamilla passed on when they got what they needed?”

“Looking up who he is so we can help him pass on?”  Sam hummed, tapping the edge of her keyboard. “Nice idea.”

“Nicholai Technus was an inventor my dad looked up to,” Danny said after glancing at Tuck’s screen.  “He had built the most sophisticated robots of his time and championed the innovation of automation.”

“Help him craft a robot better than he’d ever made and he might go back to benevolent technology making instead of attempting world domination?”  Tucker sounded only vaguely pessimistic about the idea but Danny couldn’t think of a better one.

Before Danny could voice as much, his phone rang.  Picking it up with some trepidation he answered. “Hi, Mo-”

“DANIEL JAMES FENTON!” Son of a neutrino.


	3. Logic v Ambition, Frustrating Circumstances, Morbid Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local Teenager Talks Sense to Dead Inventor  
> Local Teen Frustrated With Grounding, Parents Don't Listen  
> Local Teen Does Questionable Research, Finds Possible Conspiracy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration comes in sorta bursts, will update again on moonday but for now enjoy this Thorsday's instalment of the fic! Note, Valerie may not have the biggest role in every episode there following her ghost hunter upgrade, but she's still doing Something.

Tucker flipped once more from his research on Technus to Doomed™, looking around the first level for any noobs he could mow down for a bit of fun before moving on.  Then he spotted an oddity with three mech legs like Doc Ock and a weird sci-fi horror vibe. “On your six noob.” Tucker fired off a shot to get rid of an orc behind the player and got closer, raising his brow at the complete lack of response.  Until the guy started talking. Tuck turned off his mic and took a deep breath before turning to Sam. “Technus is in Doomed™ apparently. I suspect Danny’s stuff.”

“That sounds like the worst possibility, Technus reaching the internet,” Sam said.  “Think you can cut him off from reaching the rest of it?” Sam was wrapping up her paper on the eco-friendly technologies that were already present today and leaned over his shoulder to look.

“Not from here but as soon as I get home, yeah.  I’ll keep him distracted, you talk with Danny.” Tuck turned on his mic and laid out some spiel about showing Technus the ropes, leading him to the next level.  “So, mind if I throw in something I was researching? Nerd to nerd? I’ve been looking into this great inventor, Nicolai Technus, ever heard of him?”

“You mean the master of technology during his time?”  Technus asked with such enthusiasm that Tucker could almost feel it.  “What have you been researching him for?”

“Well, I wanted to know who started the first models for real-life cyborgs and found him as the source for androids - which people need to stop mixing up.  Isn’t that interesting?” Tucker sidestepped the death truck, getting armor scratched up and losing a couple points of hp, but nothing serious. He was entirely fine with Technus getting hi- ok, Technus’ ghost powers worked in the game.  “Imagine if he had access to the stuff we have today, ya know? He could make all kinds of technology to improve the world for everyone.”

Technus was quiet as they dodged through and around all the incoming trucks on the bridge until reaching the other end.  “That is true! The technological genius of such a man as Technus could easily improve everything out there in the world!  Enough that he’d be able to control everything!”

“Yeah,” Tucker said slowly, “he could waste his resources and skill that way but why?  What would the point be?” Tucker took out a couple of the Wushu Warlords as he spoke. “There’s little to actually do post domination of the world.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”  Great, Technus was listening. Tuck could roll with this.

“Simple, you have control over the world via available tech.  What next? Tending to the problems of the world - political disputes, wars, etcetera - or blowing it up.  The problems in the world are numerous and would be tedious if not impossible for one person to handle and solve, and destroying everything is pointless as it leaves no further objectives and renders all progress meaningless.”

“But if the world cannot be helped, then what point would there be to the genius of Technus?”  Technus was frowning, firing a blast at the nearest warlord. “If new problems always pop up then why should he not remove them by force?”

“Destruction isn’t innovative or progressive, dude.”  Tucker carved a path through the enemies trying to swarm them, careful not to hit Technus and teach him that you can take out other players.  “If Technus were around he could make things to help fix the problems at hand, crafting the right tools to give to the right people for the job.  He could’ve created his androids that could do the dangerous jobs that humans aren’t suited to and eventually eliminate any need for human laborers altogether, so people could focus on what makes them happy as opposed to being locked into a relentless system that keeps all but ninety people in the relative dirt.”

“The world would recognize my-his genius and request more of it!  Technus could be the driving force of innovation in the world!” This was good, Technus was so wrapped up in the idea of being recognized worldwide as the greatest inventor and innovator that he dropped his poor act of anonymity. 

The café’s ‘time up in 1 minute’ alert overlapped the game and Tuck sucked on his teeth.  “I’ll have to do that another time. What’s your name?”

“I am Nicolai,” Technus said, pointing to the N on his chest.  “And you?”

“Friar Tuck.  Sending a friend request before I’m forcibly logged off here.”  Tucker did as he said, then logged out himself. Slumping in his chair, Tucker turned to Sam.  “I think that went ok.”

“You were speaking logically Tucker,” Sam said as she saved all her notes onto a flash drive.  “That’s all he’ll respond to besides violence. I texted Danny the situation.”

* * *

 

Danny was heavily considering haunting Lancer or possessing him, walking into a closet, and locking it.  Danny was being called lazy, ill-prepared, lethargic, and unfocused in his own home. As though Danny weren’t tired, too late to grab everything because of it, more tired from the mad dash to school, and practically falling asleep because of how much he already knew about the subjects.  “Mr. Lancer, I’ve been having trouble sleeping,” Danny grit through his teeth to try and explain his behavior away. “Growing body takes up a lot of energy ya know.”

“Then you should be spending less time on your video games, mister,” Dad said, “I remember just the other night I heard you on the computer with your friends, playing that Doomed game of yours at 8 and when I came down at 5 to start up on a project you were just coming out of the lab!”

“Danny will pass,” Lancer said, showing no sign he had paid attention to Danny’s explanation.  “I know he’s capable.”  _ Everyone who actually knows me knows I’m capable, you just don’t listen to my reasoning. _  “But I’d like him to spend his after-school hours in my office studying until I administer the make-up exam.”  Danny moved until he was out of Lancer’s reach, and the lights flickered a bit.

“But I have stuff to do after class,” Danny said at the same time that Jazz made the same sentiment.  “How do you know that?”

“I respect you enough to imagine you have plans,” Jazz said with a shrug and a … cringe Danny would be calling that a cringe.  Whatever it was, it was the worst tell he’d ever seen in a liar. Truly, embarrassing for Danny to be related to someone that bad at lying.

Zipping back to reality, his parents were saying something.  “Forbidding all access to electronics,” Mom finished and Danny felt every hair on his body stand up as the lights flickered for a few seconds.

Danny felt the buzz of his cell phone receiving a text and cursed himself for not turning off the ringer.  His parents held out their hands and Danny handed over the phone with a sigh. “It’s just a text from Tucker.”  His Dad, probably without thinking, squeezed too hard and the phone was crushed in his hand.

“I can fix that, after you pass the test.”

* * *

 

Valerie didn’t like searching through obituaries like she was, especially since it was for a teen around her age, but she had been serious when she spoke to Danny before.  If Valerie could bring Danny peace and send him off to wherever ghosts went when they passed on, then she’d do it. Then she could be sure that he didn’t destroy the city trying to stop other ghosts, and he’d be happily on his way.

That didn’t make searching through every dead 14-year-old from the past decade named Danny any less morbid an activity though.  “Limiting it to the state still leaves way too long a list of names to go through,” Valerie said to herself at her desk, homework done and pushed to the side.  “But Ember hadn’t died anywhere near Amity, so how do I know that he lived here before he died?” Valerie shuddered, leaning back in her chair. She was never gonna get used to saying that.  “Starboy always knows just what turns are dead ends when I chase him, almost always starts his fights around school or the Nasty Burger when it’s daytime, and he doesn’t sound like he’s out of touch with the times.  But then maybe Danny’s just been flying around town a lot since before he crashed into my life and fucked everything up.”

Val frowned, another uncomfortable thought popping up.  He had said that the dog was just one of the guard dogs that had been euthanized and looking for its squeaky toy.  “That doesn’t make much sense though… why get rid of the dogs before the security upgrades were finished? That sounds like a recipe for public outlash if anyone found out.”  Valerie put aside her searched for dead kids her age and instead searched up Axiom labs and any controversy about their dead dogs.

Turns out that a few people were rather upset over it, as a few caretakers of the guard dogs had reported that many of them that had been euthanized were mere puppies that’d be easier to train out of the attack responses.  All Valerie could find beyond that and a handful of emotional stories from the dog trainers was that it was an executive decision, and a poor one. “What executive makes decisions that stupid? Who owns Axiom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does it make sense that Axiom would get rid of the dogs before the security system replacing them was tested? No. Does Vlad own Axiom Labs and have the authority to make dumb heartless decisions? Yes. Is Valerie Smart, Determined and Willing to Look into shit? Hell Yes!
> 
> Questions, comments and thoughts about the world below please!


	4. Intelligence vs Charisma, reason vs obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local Genius Teen Can't Stop Snarking When Sleep Deprived  
> Local Tech Teen Fails to Reason with the Dead

Danny missed his shot at the basketball court and growled in frustration.  “Ok, so you’re telling me Technus is in Doomed ™ while I’m banned from electronics?”  Danny knew that his life was ridiculous but this was ludacris. “All because our vice principal decided that invading a student’s personal life was more important than just sticking to his job.”

“Well, you can’t blame Lancer for Technus getting into the game,” Tucker said as he caught the ball and shot it himself.  It bounced off the backboard into Sam’s hand and he rolled his eyes as she started doing tricks. “Show off.”

“Just like you wish you could,” Sam said with a snort.  “And Tuck’s right about that one Danny. He must’ve gotten in through one of our computers.  Any luck on finding out Technus’ physical location?”

“I was nervous about checking since he’s a tech ghost and might notice my trace,” Tuck said with a shrug.  “Thankfully though he didn’t. Also thankfully he’s in the Fenton’s computer.”

“Unfortunately I have no access to it right now,” Danny said with a groan.  “Even if I did, would I be able to do anything to Technus in the game with just my avatar?  He has his powers functional, which means he’s got a lot better ones in the game than we have.”

“He seemed to be listening to me well enough when I was talking sense to him about how taking over the world is a boring, dull, and unprogressive goal to waste that kind of genius on.”  Danny laughed and Sam sunk the basketball. “Maybe I can suggest he work with me once he blurts out who he is in a rant?”

“Yeah,” Danny said with a grin.  “You get an opportunity to work with someone besides me and the robotics club on actually building some really cool stuff, Technus gets to have his genius recognized, everyone wins.”

“As far as effecting Technus in-game in case he doesn’t like the idea of keeping it under wraps until the public accepts the return of the dead,” Sam said in her oh so optimistic way of putting things, “Shouldn’t you be able to do what Technus is doing Danny?  You make the lights flicker every time you get mad and can’t let your eyes turn green. I figured you could do things with electronics that Technus can just not on his level.”

Before Danny could hug Sam and call her a genius, their lunchtime group up in the gym was interrupted by a loud, mind grating voice.  “Danny Fenton, my classroom now!”

 

Danny looked from the clock to Lancer filling out papers, to his textbook, open to the end of the last chapter in the quarter of the book they’d read in class.  Danny could feel his brain cells individually falling asleep on him, and if that sudden drop in temperature was to be believed, his foot just turned entirely incorporeal, so he forced it back into solidity and stood up.  Bending back a bit until the joints in his back popped oh so satisfyingly, Danny frowned when he heard Lancer’s voice and wandered over to look at what he was doing. “Stretching my legs.” Danny stared at the desk before him, brain slowly rebooting before his gaze latched onto something that wasn’t right.  There were two possibilities here, and only one of them was going to keep him out of trouble. “You have a sister?”  _ Why do you have a picture of yourself in drag on your desk in the classroom _ is what Danny really wanted to ask, but this was his vice principal as much as his teacher - which only begged the question  _ why isn’t this on his office desk instead. _

“Yes,” Lancer said far too fondly for Danny to think this was an accident.  “We haven’t been able to see each other in years though, couldn’t afford the fare.”   _ Plausible story based on teacher salaries set aside to emotionally wrangle kids into improving for his approval.  Clever bastard. _  Lancer frowned at him, which means Danny missed his line.  “This is the part where you say ‘Gosh Mr. Lancer, I didn’t know teaching was so hard.’”   _ Scratch that, he just thinks I’m dumb enough to fall for this. _

“I’m 14, sleep deprived, and have two career goals in mind,” Danny said because his mouth didn’t work like other body parts that obeyed conscious thought did.  “I already knew how little you get paid and I don’t particularly care about your personal life. Though, I am sorry that your sister doesn’t come over either.” Even Desiree might not be able to stop his mouth, now that Danny thought about it.

Lancer couldn't look more annoyed without being outright angry, letting out a heavy sigh.  “Right, of course.” He stood and walked past Danny. “I need some air.”

Danny rolled his eyes and stretched out proper, before placing a hand on Lancer’s computer.  He focused on the buzz of electricity within and let his own ectoplasm slip through his palm.  Danny’s hand lit up and he was suddenly aware of the emails and grading scales and other things on Lancer’s computer, everything laid out before his eyes like little stars waiting for him to pluck them out of the darkness.  Tempting as that was, Danny, pulled back and grinned. “Sam was right about that at least - interesting. To be explored later. For now…”

Danny grabbed Lancer’s book of poetry he kept on his desk and flipped through, skimming for something to question.  Deciding on one, Danny walked out to find Lancer sulking on a bench and showed off phenomenal self-control in not mocking him for looking like a broody teen.  “In the poem  The Tiger , why does he rhyme the words ‘I’ and ‘symmetry’?”

Lancer arched a brow but answered with little bite to his tone.  “It was written in the early 1800s, I’m sure there were many ways to pronounce that word.”

Danny smiled, walking closer.  “And it’s Blake, right? William Blake?”  Danny sat down when Lancer smiled and Danny cheered internally.

“Why yes.  He wrote many poems using that same rhyming scheme in fact.”

“Really?  Which ones?”

* * *

 

Tucker wanted to find out who had told Technus about the seven silver keys of the apocalypse so he could rip their hard drive apart.  “Nicolai, listen to me, there’s no way a simple game like this could give you actual entrance to the main servers of every major website to control the internet.  No one has that much money and influence and if they did they wouldn’t put it into a video game!”

“And how do I know you aren’t attempting to stop me simply so that you can accomplish the task,” Technus said as he fired a beam at Tucker that went faster than the geek could dodge in time.  Technus had been grinding, clearly. “I, Technus, shall win the game and gain access to all information in the world!”

“To what end?”  Tucker really didn’t want Technus to even sort of discover how far his powers might reach in the net.  “Can one mind even process all that info? It’d destroy you from the inside out!” Also a valid concern as they didn’t know the limits a ghost’s mind had, only the limits of a human brain.

“How can I advance without knowledge of what  _ is, _ child?  If I cannot know what I am advancing upward from then I cannot know that I am advancing, now can I?”  Technus was knocked back at the end of his speech, Chaos raining down shot after shot. Sam thought that if his points reached 0 Technus might be ejected from the game - into FentonWorks where he would have access to the most advanced tech in the world.  Tucker was partial to shutting Technus down entirely by shutting off Danny’s computer while he was still inside of it.

“The most access you might get through getting the keys is the coding of the game itself, Technus,” Tucker once again tried reasoning while firing off a shot of his own when Technus turned off his intangibility.  “Which would tell you no more than how to remake the game on a server you lack access to. And even  _ if _ you could actually mess with the internet all of 7 human beings actually believe in ghosts as they are, you wouldn’t be able to convince someone you aren’t a virus without scaring them to death.”

“And if I worked with  _ you _ they’d believe in me?”  Technus scoffed. “What makes you so influential?”

“I could get the Fentons to cite you as an actual ghost.”  If they were able to convince them not to shoot the man. “I could give you input you otherwise wouldn’t come up with.”

Technus slammed his avatar into a wall and blasted it.  “I, Technus, do not need the input of an arrogant child like yourself!”  Tucker was killed in the game and growled, digging grooves into his desk.

“Damnit Danny, where are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who /wouldn't/ catch that it was Lancer crossdressing in that photo? Also I cut out the sexism because Sam wouldn't associate with people like that. Also Also Danny is a smart boy who would be curious about his powers outside of combat roles to see if he can be something other than violent, I think. Thoughts?


	5. Caffeinated Computer Confrontations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Local Teen Drinks Nigh Poisonous Amounts of Caffeine, Profits, And Wins Game  
> Local Teen Speaks Reason Into Local Dead Man.

Danny put a great deal of effort into faking effort at memorizing poems he already had memorized for the next week.  He took notes, tapped his pencil, turned the pages, all the works. He was about to fall asleep. “Time for plan F.” Reaching into his bag, Danny pulled out a midnight blue thermos covered in stars.  Lancer raised a brow at him. “Mom n Dad suggested caffeine and Mom let me see her notes on the best coffee she made in college. I did my best to replicate.” Lancer nodded and Danny drank a good three sips before his worldview exploded into the sharpest and yet most indecipherable detail he’d ever experienced.

Time lost meaning for a unit and Danny was filling out test answers fast enough to tear the paper, double checking, handing Lancer the paper and drawing up plans to modify the specter speeder to acclimate to the vacuum of space.  He heard Lancer humming noncommittally at his desk while going over the exam, but Danny was lost in space and thinking up how to install a drive in the Speeder that’d allow 4D maneuvering to control the shift of the vehicle in the zone and possibly even shift from earth level to the zone from anywhere and back considering they were separated mainly by spatial dimensions, following somewhat the same laws of time as far as Danny had observed.

Three-quarters of the way into his plan sketches, Lancer called him up to his desk and Danny gently took the paper.  He’d been expecting a B, maybe a B+ but this? “91? I aced it?”

“Barely,” Lancer said with a grin.  “But yes, you aced it.”

“I knew I could do it, well I thought I’d get a B because of how fast I was going because of all this caffeine, but I knew I  _ could _ get an A on this, and this is awesome!”  Based on the shift in Lancer’s pupils Danny was not hallucinating the brightening of the room, which might’ve had to do with his ghost powers, which he’d have to look into more later and Lancer was making some vaguely threatening comment.  “Don’t think this means you won’t have to. I aced it!” Danny cheered as he ran out of the classroom, faster than a human being of his physique should’ve been able to move. And then faster than humanly possible once he was out of the school.

 

Danny made it home in exactly 5.14 minutes, slapped his exam down on the kitchen table and noted that he’d have to find out what that thing was that his parents were making, and once he was out of sight of them at the stairs, he jumped down the remaining flight.  Rolling to a stand, Danny turned on his computer only to find Doomed ™ already running. Technus really was in his computer. “Well, I could get into Lancer’s computer,” Danny said slowly. He transformed into Phantom, then phased into the computer. For a moment, nothing happened.  Then the world of Doomed ™ exploded into focus, his avatar’s body inverting colors the way his normal body did. Everything felt the way it normally did actually. He focused on the voice chat feature and grinned. “Guys, I aced the test, I had mom’s coffee recipe, I’m physically in the game, and I’m flying your way now as soon as you tell me which zone you’re on.”  Danny, of course, was still in Mega Mart surrounded by zombies. All of which were easily dispatched with just his blaster.

“Sup dude, you got 100?  Also, we’re on level 13! Technus has 5 of the 7 keys and I don’t wanna know how legit the claim to the web is, cause if Technus bypasses the game to a server he’ll figure out how to go further on from there and he’s pretty pissed.”

“Got an A- actually but a solid A-.”  Danny flew through the level portal, selected the lower level 13 - how’d he never think of that being the door to the apocalypse?  When he got there, Technus was monologuing again and Danny rolled his eyes all the way around in his skull as he flew and fired a blast at Technus’ hand, knocking the key from his grasp.  “Master of Longwinded introductions. Do you  _ ever _ stop talking about yourself?”

Sam flew to the tree with the seventh key and Tucker fired a follow-up shot.  Technus blocked the blast from Tuck with his shield and flew after the key, only to be blasted back by Sam.  “We’re one key away from Technus potentially taking over the internet Danny! Also congrats on the A.”

“Thanks,” Danny said as Technus began to shrink from how much damage he was taking.  “Hammer him like the bug he is!”

Tucker tossed a grenade while Danny fired at where it would land, making Technus shrink yet again from damage.  He flew up and away from the trio. “That wasn’t enough damage to take out someone who’s been grinding for 48 hours straight,” Sam said, running off.  “We’re gonna need to bust out the big guns.”

“Mega cheat?”  Tucker asked with a grin as Technus came rocketing toward them on a rock, looking more like a centaur bred with a spider more than doc ock now.  Tucker and Danny fired at Technus and the rock respectively.

“Mega cheat.  Keep him busy!”

“No probl-” Danny was going to die because of his mouth one day, clearly, as he was knocked into a venus fly trap the size of him and growled when it clamped down.  “Crud.” Tucker dodged as many of Technus’ blasts as he could, but when the geek reached for the key, Technus slammed down in front of him hard enough to knock out those last few life points.  “Tuck!” Danny blew the plant apart and flew in front of Technus and the key, glaring. 

“The game is over.  Victory is mine! Any last requests, child?”  Technus reached for the key.

Danny grinned.  “Sam, there’s a bug here, think you can squash it?”

“With pleasure!”  A giant blue foot clad in pink sandals slammed down on Technus, shaking the ground.  When Sam lifted her foot - easily taller than Danny’s whole body - Technus looked much like a spider about to die.  Danny would have to ask Sam about where the fuck this giant tiki statue body was hidden in the game, but before that he aimed a ball of charging plasma at Technus.

“Tuck tried to reason with you Technus,” Danny said as Sam’s spear was aimed at the ghost.  “Maybe instead of going crazy over potential power, you stop and listen to someone else’s suggestions?”  Technus tried to get away, but Danny fired and Sam slammed her spearhead down on him, and Technus blipped out of the game character death style.  “I’ll get him.” Just as Tucker respawned at the level portal, Danny pulled open a portal back into his parents’ lab.

Before the battered Technus could do anything with everything around them, Danny wrapped him in as tightly knit a hypershape prison as Danny could think of- the caffeine was even affecting his processing speed in ghost form, which was great.  “Let’s talk, shall we?” Danny focused hard, and the two of them became intangible and invisible, and soon were on the roof. There, Danny returned to physicality and frowned at Technus. “Nicolai, when you came out of the portal the first time, what had you been planning on doing?  I don’t mean what I suggested to you but what your own actual plans were.”

Technus glared at Danny for several long minutes in silence, and Danny made sure to keep an eye on his structure to sense if any attempts at breaking it were being made.  There weren’t. It was getting boring waiting for Technus to talk. Danny sat down on the air and kept eye contact, tapping fingers the only reason he noticed he was still in his Doomed ™ armor.  Finally, Technus opened his mouth and sighed instead of ranting. “Honestly child, I came out of that portal curious to find out how it worked. After figuring that out I was gonna go around and see what all has been made in however long it’s been since I died.”  Technus slumped against his prismic cage and shrugged. “Based on the clock in your game, it’s been 51 years since I took my last breath. I wanted to see how technology had advanced and the world with it! And look now, you kids are able to communicate across the world for something like a game!

“I thought about what your friend Terry-”

“Tucker.”

“Tucker said, about how world domination isn’t exactly a goal with any ends to it that I’d enjoy.  But what should I do with my powers and knowledge if the world won’t accept that I’ve returned?”

“Well, I can ask Tucker to look up the patents on your inventions and stuff like that, soon as my dad fixes my phone.  My family has documented scientific proof of ghosts existing so cite them, spread it in emails to people you wanna get behind with innovation and work your way from there.  The concern about what trying to access every bit of data on the internet might do to your mind is a legitimate one Technus. I connected to just my teacher’s computer and it was headache inducing.”  Danny rubbed his head and grinned. “Not sure how ectoplasm and caffeine react though so my recovery method might not work for you.”

Technus mulled this over and Danny let him, slowly untangling the shape he’d made around the older ghost as a show of good faith.  He could pull the thermos faster than Technus could phase while he was this caffeine high. After a good ten minutes of mulling and Danny forming little stars next to him out of the ectoplasm he’d contained Technus in - the shape not the actual stars yet, but he was working on it - Technus spoke again.  “I need time to consider your words in further detail child, but you speak logically and I am a tad surprised that you even spoke to me at all. Upon my defeat, I assumed you’d try to destroy me utterly.”

Danny winced, realizing that he had definitely been far too like his parents when dealing with ghosts in the past.  He’d have to work on that. “Well, I figured after a while that ghosts are just people who’ve had a violent end and have stuff they want to do so bad that death couldn’t stop them from trying.  Who am I to stop you from doing something if you aren’t going to hurt people?” Danny shrugged. “Of course, stealing people’s electronics and trying to kill teenagers or take over the world is technically a form of hurting people so if I catch you doin it you’re toast.”

“I’ll leave the toast to the baker,” Technus said with a laugh as Danny fully released him.  “You told me that you needed something fixed, correct? Bring it to me and I might be able to do more than just fix it.”

Danny considered this and hummed before dropping into his house and transforming into his Fenton form overtop his bed.  He rushed down and tapped his dad’s shoulder, ducking under an attempted hug. “Hi dad, can I have my phone bits back please, I know you have them on you, also that coffee was amazing, how long will three sips of it last?”

Dad blinked a couple times while pulling out the pieces of broken phone, handing them to Danny.  “The kind that your mother and I made in college? Three whole sips…. You’re lucky it’s Thursday cause that won’t wear off until exactly 48 hours have passed and then you’ll be darn near comatose.”  Danny tilted his head, wondering how serious that was, then decided that his ghost powers would compensate for any extreme drops in basic human components and hugged his dad, running off up the stairs before he could be hugged back.

Danny was on the roof in his human form faster than he should’ve been, and faster than he remembered getting there.  He handed the pieces to Technus with a grin. “Tadaaa! Dad got upset and squeezed too hard.”

“Ah, a punishing parent can be a bit extreme when it comes to a child they care dearly for,” Technus said.  Glowing green mist flowed into and around the phone and it steadily lit up until it was too bright for human eyes to look at.  So Danny transformed and continued to stare. It morphed slowly into a rectangle and dimmed down once it had settled on that shape.  Danny was handed back a … well, he’d seen some of the richer kids at school with a smartphone like this and Tucker had been begging his parents for one.  “There ya go! Better processor than anything that could possibly be on the market, and it’s like having a computer in your hand!”

Danny opened it up and let his own ectoplasm reach into the phone and he blinked rapidly as the base information for the operating system flew through his head and instructions filled him.  “Thanks, Technus!” He managed to say after pulling out of the fascinatingly put together operating system. “This is… really cool.”

“It was no problem for me, Technus, Master of all Technology, to upgrade your broken communicator!  I do have one last question for you before I leave, Phantom.” Danny tilted his head and Technus gestured widely with his arms at the world.  “Where do you suggest I start my search?”

“I’m not sure… well, the two places in the world with the latest tech are Fentonworks and Axiom Labs, but my parents would try to get rid of you after strapping you to a table and tearing you apart for research,” Danny said.  “So, Axiom labs is the best choice.”

“Very well!  Farewell child!”  Technus crowed before vanishing pixel style the same way Danny pulled his vanishing trick on Valerie as mist.

“This is gonna be ok.  The fact that I’m gonna be awake for the next two days straight is not ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of this one. We'll see when I get the next one out. Thoughts until then?

**Author's Note:**

> So, Monotype on Phantom had pointed out something that was a bit weird with this episode and that's A: why is our responsible boy Danny up all night playing videogames when fighting ghosts is a more plausible possibility? B: why are Tucker and Danny being sexist about videogames? So I scrapped those two things. Instead, I'm throwing in questions about ghosts and stuff like that.
> 
> Also Valerie Will show up just not yet.


End file.
